It's like a Civilization game a lot of us played as games. You deploy resources into research — sometimes for a long time — to unlock new technologies. The new technologies then level up your entire civilization and, over time, your world map grows from wooden shacks, to road networks, to castles, to steam engines, to skyscrapers, to magnetic trains, etc...

Bitcoin wasn't invented randomly, it's the end stage of a multi-decade research process. The theory behind it, like you see described here in Sovereign Individual, was already known for decades. We just didn't have a way to make it practical until Nakamoto solved Byzantine Generals.

The first people to realize they could blow holes in walls using gunpowder didn't realize they were leveling up global civilization, they just said "Oh cool, I can blow up my enemy's castle now" 🧐